Egypt reports 541 new coronavirus cases, 44 deaths on Monday

CAIRO - 1 February 2020: The Egyptian Health Ministry said in a statement that 541 new coronavirus cases were detected, upping the total number of confirmed cases to 166,492.

The ministry said 44 patients have died from the virus over the past 24 hours, raising the death toll to 9,360.

As many as 471 patients were discharged from isolation hospitals after receiving necessary medical care, taking the number of recovered cases to 130,107 so far, the ministry added.

Egypt has approved the emergency use of Chinese sinopharm vaccine and the British-Swedish AstraZeneca vaccine.

Egypt imported the first batch of the Sinopharm vaccine in December and the first batch of the AstraZeneca on January 31. Each of the two batches consisted of 50,000 doses.

Health Minister Hala Zayed said in statements to MBC channel Sunday, that the Ministry will start vaccinating the elderly along with people with chronic diseases against COVID, in mid-February.

This comes as Egypt started its vaccination campaign last month, starting with doctors and medical staff at quarantine hospitals.